Machine to machine (M2M) communication is also called as a Machine Type Communication (MTC), and can be widely used in intelligent transportation, remote meter reading, medical health, video surveillance, smart home furnishing, smart grid and other fields. A device involved in the M2M communication is an MTC User Equipment (MTC UE), and a network entity providing M2M service is an MTC server; the MTC server is communicated with the MTC UE via a mobile communication network, thereby enabling the management and monitoring of the MTC UE. FIGS. 1 and 2 are diagrams of an MTC UE access to a 3G mobile communication network and a 4G mobile communication network, respectively.
In FIGS. 1 and 2, a Non-MTC UE refers to a UE which communicates by means of Human to Human (H2H). The Non-MTC UE may establish an IP channel with Packet Data Network (PDN) after being assigned an IP address, thereby enabling an upper layer service communication with the PDN; similarly, an MTC UE may establish an IP channel with the MTC server after being assigned an IP address, thereby enabling an upper layer service communication with the MTC server.
It should be noted that, the IP channel established between the MTC UE and the MTC server is a logical IP channel. As shown in FIG. 1, the physical path of the 3G mobile communication network may pass through a base station (Node B), a Radio Network Controller (RNC) and a Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN); as shown in FIG. 2, the physical path of the 4G mobile communication network may pass through an Evolved Node B (e-Node B, namely a base station), a Serving Gateway (SGW) and a Packet Data Gateway (PGW).
Moreover, compared with H2H communication, the M2M communication has significant differences in service characteristics. For example, the M2M communication has a large number of MTC UE, and the MTC UE typically has a lower amount of data, etc. For example, for an automatic meter reading system installed in community residents' houses a large number of MTC UE need to be distributed in a small area, and the amount of data of each MTC UE does not exceed hundreds of bits every day.
In the implementation of the present application, the inventor has found that at leas following problems exist in the prior art:
When a UE accesses a mobile communication network, the access network such as Node B and e-Node B) and the core network (such as GGSN and PGW) of the mobile communication network are required to allocate bearer resources for each UE (e.g., MTC UE), and establish a corresponding binding relationship. When the MTC UEs are largely disposed and access the mobile communication network, a lot of network resources will be occupied and there will be a lot of signaling overhead, thereby resulting in an improper work of the mobile communication network or an impact on the H2H communication.